Is It Officially Time To Start Worrying About Vitality?

First, it was IEM Atlanta 2026, which was understandable, as they hadn’t practiced and needed a break in the hectic schedule ahead of the Major. Then, it was the IEM Cologne Major 2026, which was far from ideal, but you’d forget all about it if they were able to get back on track and dominate the rest of the year. And now, it’s BLAST Bounty Season 2 2026, which marks their first missed Playoffs since ropz joined the team.

That’s three poor tournament results in a row now for Vitality, who for the bulk of the last 18 months have proven to be largely unbeatable at the top of the Counter-Strike scene. They were the established raid boss. The boogeymen. But with their latest collapse post-player break at the hands of Liquid, it’s impossible not to be a little bit worried. Is it too early, or is the end of the Vitality era really on the horizon?

mezii and flameZ are the biggest culprits in terms of individual form

We can start by looking at the individual form of all the players in Vitality across their three most recent losing events. The ratings are as follows:

• ZywOo: 1.32
• ropz: 1.09
• flameZ: 1.05
• mezii: 0.94
• apEX: 0.89

Some obvious observations: ZywOo is still excellent, if not quite superhuman. ropz is enduring a slight drop in form, but nothing disastrous for his position. And apEX has gone from a solid fragging IGL to one that needs those around him to carry in that department. Not ideal, but still typical IGL stuff from the captain.

Instead, the most concerning numbers for me come from flameZ and mezii. It is their overperformance from previous expectations that has allowed Vitality to continue winning, and now, it is their underperformance stopping the team from progressing deeper into events.

A great anchor is the finishing touch to every legendary roster. Magisk on Astralis, Perfecto on NAVI, mezii on Vitality. Throughout 2025, the Brit averaged a 1.08 rating – incredible value from some of the most difficult positions to play in the entire game. That has fallen to 1.02 in 2026, and that’s including his 0.94 average over the last three events that they failed to win. Frankly, those are liability numbers. It would be acceptable from an IGL, but from the anchor, they’re the type of numbers that will see teams target you over and over again.

And then there’s flameZ, who perhaps is among Vitality’s biggest issues at the moment. Across the last three events, that 1.05 rating is dismal when you consider the kinds of numbers he was putting up just a few months ago. A 1.23 at IEM Krakow, followed by a 1.29 and 1.44 at PGL Cluj-Napoca and BLAST Open Rotterdam, respectively. During this time, some felt he was a better opener than donk. I wholeheartedly disagree with that assessment, but the conversations were happening. To have your opener go from that to 1.05 is pretty dismal, especially when his explosive rifling opens up so many opportunities at the beginning of rounds. The caveat here is that flameZ did look solid in the series against Liquid at BLAST Bounty, so he may be back to his usual self post-player break. But the brutal single-elimination Bounty format means, with his teammates struggling, he gets no second chance to widen that small sample size.

Pre-Atlanta flameZ could buy enough time for mezii to play his way back into form, so as long as his own slump is just a temporary blip and not representative of a longer-term regression, then Vitality should be okay.

Concern is necessary, but hyperbole is over the top

It’s important to remember that we’re talking about probably the best Counter-Strike team of all time here. They have more than enough credit in the bank to suggest that a few bad events do not define them. Even Astralis, the other contenders in the GOAT debate, had three instances across 2018 and 2019 where they lost three events in a row without coming close to lifting the trophy. They were not infallible, even if it seems so, seven years removed from that era.

With this credit, you almost have to assume that Vitality will pick back up where they left off, until their form is so far beyond the pale that it’s clear we’re past the point of no return. But we’re simply nowhere near that point yet, and the mitigating circumstances for each event loss prove that.

First, IEM Atlanta, where they decided not to practice to get a break after completing the ESL Grand Slam. Burnout is very real in the hectic schedule, so you understood why they treated that as a sacrificial lamb. The Cologne Major admittedly wasn’t great, but they can at least point to the fact that they lost to the eventual winners there. And then there’s BLAST Bounty – a format that has never been kind to Vitality, even at their best. Single-elimination, no second chances, right out of the player break. It simply doesn’t suit them, but that’s nothing new.

Is this just making excuses for Vitality? Perhaps. But when you’ve seen them at their best for so long, it’s hard not to give them the benefit of the doubt. Hyperbole about them being “finished” helps no one at this point, although this is the Counter-Strike community, where calls for restraint in rhetoric will almost always fall on deaf ears.

Vitality still have a long season ahead of them, with plenty of big trophies to compete for. If they want to end the GOAT team debate for good, they need to find some answers to their woes, and fast.